Random Thoughts Time

- I need to buy gates for the stairs. My BABY was halfway up yesterday (sigh!)

- I think I'm going to start running every day. I only do a mile or so at a time...is that too much?

- I recently bought a size 6 jeans...I haven't been a size 6 in 3 years.

- I love my Diva Cup. I keep wondering why I didn't do this sooner...

- I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. It allows me to keep in touch with my brother while he's deployed, reunite with old friends (including some from elementary school!), and build my business...
But it's also a chance for everyone to say what they think without a filter. A lot of people hide behind the anonymity of the internet and say things they normally wouldn't say in person. Some people *would* say these things in person... I guess I just need to get used to it as the internet is slowly becoming more and more focused  on social media.

- I guess my husband did *not* have food poisoning...because now Franklin is sick too.

- I need help with my 2 year old. He only listens when I yell. It's always been that way (before people start saying "well it's because you yell all the time.")


Any random thoughts you'd like to share?

Phone Pics: Family BBQ (and other stuff)

See all the stuff? Franklin barricaded him in...

Playing with the flash on my phone. It flashes a couple of times before ACTUALLY taking the picture.

Franklin's rash on Day 2 (it got better later)

Notice the shoes. Yes, there was water too.

I salvaged most of it

He was watching me play with vinegar and baking soda

Just a cute kid

Stefan's family's land

Homemade pico de gallo. I only eat it at these gatherings!

One drink option

The other drink option (poorly stored wine...most of it was gross lol)

Cute grasshopper

Cute kid

Nearly naked kid

the lake

When Stefan was a kid the water came up to the pier...they could jump off.

On the hayride

I don't know why...I just thought it was a neat photo to take.

Daddy and son

Crashed out

It was an AWESOME weekend!

Public Service Announcement

I'm doing this post for the good of THE WORLD.


I had plenty of parties in college. We even had a few loud parties. However, we were always mindful of our neighbors as the hours wore on...the later it got, the more we encouraged people to lower their voices or go home. (Yep, that was the choice: Stop yelling or leave)


My neighbors don't seem to grasp this concept.


Now, I'm not your mother. I don't care how late you stay up or how much you party. By owning a house you have to be at least 18 and, in my mind, an adult. 


However, when it's 2am and I can hear your music in my bedroom over my box fan it means it's too loud. I'm flexible though. I don't start getting pissy about volume until at least midnight. But I'll say again: 2am is too late to be loud. 


Okay, you're right, the law is that unless you're outside being loud or the music is 80 decibels from the street you're allowed to play it as loud as you want. I'm willing to bet that most people would say that human decency "laws" beg to differ.


So, to all my readers, the next time you're having a party be mindful of your neighbors. Go outside your house and see if you can hear the music (or feel the bass) and adjust the volume down if the answer is yes. Not everyone can sleep until noon or nap during the day. 


This has been a Public Service Announcement. You may now return to your regularly scheduled blog.

Let's Be Friends!!

FACEBOOK FRIENDS that is!

You can *like* my Fitness Page: https://www.facebook.com/KasFitness

You can *like* my Blog Page: https://www.facebook.com/MorinHouse

And you can be my Friend: https://www.facebook.com/kasondra.morin


Seriously, I'd LOVE to get to know you better!

I Watch Too Many Shows

Let's see...what did I watch this week?

America's Next Top Model
Okay, seriously...how many times can they say b**ch in one episode? That was REALLY annoying.

Survivor
This show is starting to annoy me. I know the producers thought that Redemption Island would change things up...but they need to reboot the entire show or something. It's too predictable now...Russel Hantz was cool when he found the idols, but now everyone is doing it. I mean, why even give clues at this point? Why not just say "There's an idol at camp! GO!!!!"

Weeds
Please be done soon. The shark has been jumped...

Haven
Is anyone still watching this show? Sometimes I feel like the only "fan."

Ringer
I'm behind...but it still isn't "good" yet.

New Girl
I like the d-bag jar....and did they change characters after the pilot? There was the one black roommate...and now there's a new (also black) guy? I was confused.

2 Broke Girls
The amount of sex references in the first 5mins was overwhelming and I turned it off.

Glee
DONE DONE DONE

Fringe
*sigh* Love this show! I really want to know what they're going to do about Peter. He was my favorite character.

Warehouse 13
Also a good show. I'm curious to see where they're taking it.

Eureka
This next season will be its last...thankfully.

Supernatural
Another one that shot itself in the foot early on. They defeated their main bad guy too early and had to start making stuff up. The show was AWESOME when it was just these two brothers hunting creatures. Yeah, they were looking for the demon that killed their mom...but they came across other stuff along the way. I got to learn a lot of cool folklore. Now it's focused on one thing each season...and it's sort of sacrilegious.

The Big Bang Theory
It's signed on through 2014...with good reason!

Words to Remember

I needed this reminder this week. I hope it blesses you too!

Gratituesday

These past few weeks things have been rough. God has chosen to show me that I do, indeed, have a 2 year old...

And I'm grateful for every second of it.

Wait, what??

I know that if you're friends with me on Facebook you probably don't know that I do, really, love my life. (And if you're not friends with me on FB you're missing out! Links will be at the bottom of this post!)

I have a friend with a baby that's a micro-preemie. She was born before 30 weeks. I'm sure that her mommy would gladly be cleaning up poop messes if it meant her daughter could come home.

A woman in my Due Date Club with Franklin had a still born baby. I'm sure she'd take dealing with tantrums if it meant her son could be with her.

My boys try my patience. They send me into prayer several times a day. They make me cry several times a week.

But I laugh with them. I get sweet cuddles. I get to see their faces light up when I'm gone and come back (even if it's just a couple of mins while I go pee!)

He got into my makeup and drew on his eyes with lipstick...

He was trying to attack me

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Last Week's Phone Photos

Check out the fat lip to compliment the slice on his forehead

He kept running over the baby...

Breastmilk Nutrition Facts shirt :)

A new way to play with it??

Mango Kombucha = Awesomeness

Sick toddler

We wrote Daddy a note

My baby likes spinach...he stole mine!

Link below

Coupon Trip


YAY I love this Link Up!!

Coupon Trip!

That's roughly $45 worth of product for under $13

I love CVS. Yesterday was an AWESOME trip! I'm going back tomorrow because they didn't have the Thermacare Heat Wraps I wanted (which are FREE after Extra Care Bucks).

I was the annoying person at the checkout that did 3 separate transactions so I could "roll" the Extra Care Bucks from one transaction to the next. I also had the plan change at the last minute because they were out of two products I wanted...

Anyway, here's what I did:

TRANSACTION #1

ReNu Sensitive Contact Solution  Priced at $8.99 ($1 off) and I printed a $2 off coupon. Final Price: $6.99 with $7.00 ECB

TRANSACTION #2

SoftSoap Body Wash Priced at $3.00 ($1.49 off) and used $1 off coupon Final Price: $2

SoftSoap Bar Soap Priced at $3.00 ($1.29 off) and used $.50 off coupon Final Price: $2.50

Schick Quattro for Women Priced at $8.99 ($1.50 off) and used $2 off coupon Final Price: $6.99

Use $7 in ECB from #1

Paid: $4.85

Receive $8 in ECB (4 from buying 2 SoftSoap products and 4 from the razor)

TRANSACTION #3

Pantene Conditioner Priced at $3.49 ($1.50 off)

Pantene Shampoo Priced at $3.48 ($1.51 off) and used $3 off 2 Pantene products 

Colgate Toothpaste Priced at $2.99 ($1 off) no coupon used (my bad...)

Pack of gum $1.49 (to boost it over $8 so I could use both ECB)

Paid: $.49 

Receive $2 in ECB ($1 each for 2 Pantene products and the toothpaste)

That was my trip! Now, if you don't wear contacts I'd recommend doing it like this: (assuming you have your coupons from yesterday only as well)

T#1

SoftSoap products with coupons

Pantene products with  coupons

Pay $8.50

$5 ECB

T#2

Razor (yes, men, you can use a "for women" razor...it's just pink)

 Use ECB and pay $1.99

Get $4 in ECB

T#3

Toothpaste

Thermacare (priced at $3.50)

Use ECB and pay $2.49

Get $4.49 in ECB for next week

Total out of pocket for THAT trip: $12.98 

What are you waiting for?? GO SHOP!!

In Defense Of Abstinence

I wrote this last year. I thought I'd share again and ask for your thoughts!

Disclaimer: This is what I believe as far as MY children are concerned. If you want your 14 year old son to have condoms then YOU can buy them. If you want your 12 year old daughter to have access to birth control pills then YOU take her to the doctor. Please don't spend my tax dollars on something that I don't believe in.

Every time sex education gets brought up I hear the same tune, “Kids are going to have sex so we may as well teach them to be safe.” I always want to scream, “It doesn't have to be that way!” Teenagers are going to THINK about having sex. It's a biological certainty. When puberty sets in and hormones start raging sex is going to come up in the child's mind. It doesn't help that children are hyper sexualized today. With television shows that glamorize sex (Glee, The Secret Life of the American Teenager), music and singers that are all about sex, and movies that give out the “sex is okay if you're in love” message kids are set up for failure! If you hand that same sex obsessed child a condom and show them how to “be safe” of course they're going to have sex!

Let's talk about television for a minute. I recently wrote a blog about the sexual message of an episode of Glee. The show The Secret Life of the American teenager glamorizes teen sex and pregnancy. Yes, one of the characters got pregnant. However, the message is “she didn't use protection and that's why she got pregnant.” Add that her post pregnancy life has been very easy and the message is clear: Use protection, but if you don't it's not that bad. What about the movie that shows the story of the STD made it's way around school because of a promiscuous male? She's Too Young Oh, you missed that one? Probably because it was a Lifetime Original Movie and most teenagers don't watch that channel.

What about the claims that abstinence only education doesn't work? There are numerous studies that say that the percentage of children having sex doesn't change no matter what you teach them. Not so much:

Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America (CWA), says bad public policy is to blame for the STD epidemic. "The funding of graphic sex-ed that encourages kids to be sexually active is a serious problem," She maintains. "We also have the FDA's decision to allow the morning after pill to be available without a prescription."

Wright says that decision is keeping many women from getting regular screening for STDs.  "...women are not going to their doctor's to get screened for sexually transmitted diseases," she clarifies. "Instead they're able to go to a local pharmacy and pick up a drug that is actually not that effective – even at preventing pregnancy." 

Full Article

What happens is girls have unprotected sex, head down to the local pharmacy or Planned Parenthood, pick up Plan B and never get screened for STDs. These same girls continue having sex, possibly unprotected because they can just go grab the pill again, and spread anything they caught.

The latest Centers for Disease Control study on teen birth rates in the U.S. showed a slight uptick for the year 2006. Mississippi led the nation in the percentage of teens giving birth, while New Hampshire had the fewest.

But critics of abstinence education are using the study to show that those types of educational programs are not working. Bryan Fischer, executive director of the Idaho Values Alliance disagrees, saying ten times the amount of money is spent on condom-based sex education than is spent on abstinence education.

Full Article

This was inspiring!

The classes did not focus on a message of saving sex until marriage or "disparage condom use." Instead, the classes "involved assignments to help sixth- and seventh graders see the drawbacks to sexual activity at their age."

Researchers surveyed the students again two years later and found that about one-third of those who had the abstinence-only classes said they had engaged in sex compared to about half of the students from the other three classes.

Full Article

Here's where we get down to just my opinion. Proper abstinence only education shouldn't just say, “Wait until marriage. Here are the bad things that can happen. Just say no.” I've been there. “Just say no” doesn't work if you're already naked. We need to teach these kids how to avoid the situation all together, not just how to get out of it. We need to teach them the warning signs that things are going too far, not just what happens when you are already there. We need to teach them the emotional effects of sex outside of marriage, not just the physical effects. We should be teaching these sexualized youth that their bodies have VALUE and that they need to take pride in saving themselves. Being a virgin shouldn't be something that causes shame! In a world where sex is thrown at you at every turn having the strength to say, “I'm different” should be valued.

I'll be straight with you. (Before I get a million comments from “friends” that scream I'm a hypocrite) I didn't wait. I wasn't strong enough. But, I didn't get the right message. I got the first message. I was told, “Just say no.” I didn't get the right tools. And, I was a depressed teenager with self esteem issues. It happened and it shouldn't have. By then I only valued myself for my body and what I could do with it. I want my children to love themselves more than I loved myself!

Don't give up on abstinence!